Today we lost Professor Stephen Hawking, he made science cool for the masses while being a great theoretical physicist. Despite being afflicted with ALS, he persevered and made an impact on humanity, his contribution to the sciences will be remembered for generations to come.

Hawking first earned prominence for his theoretical work on black holes. Disproving the belief that black holes are so dense that nothing could escape their gravitational pull, he showed that black holes leak a tiny bit of light and other types of radiation, now known as “Hawking radiation.”

“It came as a complete surprise,” said Gary Horowitz, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It really was quite revolutionary.”

Horowitz said the find helped move scientists one step closer to cracking the unified theory.

Hawking’s other major scientific contribution was to cosmology, the study of the universe’s origin and evolution. Working with Jim Hartle of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Hawking proposed in 1983 that space and time might have no beginning and no end. “Asking what happens before the Big Bang is like asking for a point one mile north of the North Pole,” he said.

Source: The Star

I enjoyed his books and he will be sorely missed by many.

Here’s a great piece by Vox on the opiod crisis.

Krebs is the lead author on the first randomized trial, comparing chronic pain patients on prescription opioids (like morphine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone) to patients on non-opioid painkillers (like acetaminophen or Tylenol, naproxen, or meloxicam), measuring their pain intensity and function over the course of a year.

The striking result was that the patients on opioids did no better than those taking the opioid alternatives — despite the much higher risk profile of opioids. At one year, the opioid takers even reported being in slightly more pain compared to the non-opioid group.

Source: Vox

I really hope there’s further studies, so far the positive/negative benefits of one taking opiods seems to be really weighted in the negative column and if future research finds the same results the medical industry should move towards a different approach.

So after launching in 1997, 20 years in space and 13 years around Saturn, the Cassini mission over Saturn has come to a fiery end. Over those years the satellite has stunned us with beautiful images Saturn & the accompanying moons as well as greatly expanded our knowledge of that small local system. This is what science is about, absolutely amazing and there’s still so much for us to learn.

I encourage everyone to gaze at some of the beautiful photos on the NASA website thank the scientists & engineers that made this happen.  Keep inspiring the young to reach for the stars and I wish Juno the artificial satellite a long productive life as well!